Japanese Market Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Japanese market is modestly lower in choppy trading on Thursday, reversing some of the sharp gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 is falling well below the 51,150 level, with weakness in index heavyweights and automaker stocks partially offset by gains in financial and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 178.84 points or 0.35 percent to 51,128.81, after touching a fresh record high of 51,547.93 and low of 51,042.80 earlier. Japanese shares ended sharply higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 3 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 2 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is edging down 0.4 percent and Honda is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is advancing almost 4 percent, Screen Holdings is adding almost 3 percent and Tokyo Electron is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial is gaining almost 2 percent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are adding more than 1 percent each.

Among the major exporters, Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 1 percent and Panasonic is edging up 0.1 percent, while Sony is losing almost 2 percent. Canon is flat.

Among other major losers, Komatsu and Central Japan Railway are declining more than 6 percent each, while Disco is losing more than 5 percent and Konami Group is down almost 3 percent.

Conversely, Lasertec is skyrocketing more than 21 percent, NEC is soaring almost 17 percent, Sumitomo Electric Industries is jumping more than 5 percent, SHIFT is surging almost 5 percent, Fijitsu is gaining more than 4 percent and Nidec is adding almost 4 percent, while Fujikura and Fuji Electric are advancing more than 3 percent each. Resona Holdings, GS Yuasa and Renesas Electronics are up almost 3 percent each.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the higher 152 yen-range on Thursday.

On Wall Street, stocks saw substantial volatility in late-day trading on Wednesday after turning in a strong performance throughout much of the trading session. The major averages showed wild swings back and forth across the unchanged line before closing mixed.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 130.98 points or 0.6 percent to a new record closing high of 23,958.47, the S&P 500 edged down 0.30 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,890.59 and the Dow fell 74.37 points or 0.2 percent to 47,632.00.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent and the German DAX Index slid by 0.6 percent.

Crude oil prices bounced higher on Wednesday after a report from the Energy Information Administration showed a steep drop by U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.31 or 0.5 percent at $60.46 per barrel.